St. Patrick's Day Food

Eric and I are trying to be a little more culturally well rounded. We especially like doing that with food (we really like our food!) and for St. Patrick's Day I got the go-ahead to make corned beef & cabbage.  Rachel helped me make some Irish soda bread and here's what our dinner looked like.

Next up, I think I'm going to try Indian food with naan bread and a lentil curry concoction since we took the girls to an Indian restaurant and they actually ate it.

A Weekend Away

Yes, our family did do things in the month of March, can you say I've been busy with tax season to keep up?  We had a four day weekend and took advantage of cheap airline tickets and the days off school to go to southern California.  The girls enjoyed time with Grandma & Grandpa Bartholomew, Great-Grandma Schultz, and their Aunt Theresa, Rachel, and Sawyer came out to visit as well.

A trip to California cannot be complete without a stop or two at In-N-Out (no haters pleas).  Yes we are raising beef loving girls and they know a good hamburger when they eat it!

 

Oranges were also still on the trees so they helped Grandma pick some and we had yummy fresh squeezed orange juice every morning.

The weather was beautiful unlike the weekend before when so-Cal got "drenched" with rain and were about to call Noah up to build an ark for them :)  Soaking in the sun!

The Friday we were there we went to the Getty museum to try and culture our children a little.  They knew we were going to the beach after the museum so they kept asking to leave but the gardens were fun.

Ah, the beach.  Neither one of us are really beach people, too much sand, but the girls had a great time in the freezing Pacific Ocean and once the sun came out behind the haze it felt really good.

Growing up in so-cal I don't really remember being a "tourist" at Santa Monica pier but it is fun to people watch and just enjoy the atmosphere.
When we got home, grandpa took us out to see some tar oozing from the ground in the hills of Simi Valley.  We could be the next Beverly Hillbillies!

Saturday was the big day for us.  We have usually taken a day-trip to Disneyland (about all I can handle going so often as a kid--yes I know I was spoiled) but we wanted to switch things up and went to Six Flags Magic Mountain instead.  I didn't know how each of the girls would handle the rides as one is a pure thrill ride person with nothing phasing her, one can be a little timid, and the youngest is a toss-up.  We didn't go on the big, new rides but everything else that we went on was a big hit.  All the girls could go on Ninja height-wise and they all loved it.  Elizabeth even went on one of the scary ones with me and loved it too.  I almost had to force Rachel on Revolution, a really old ride with one loop, but once she went on it she wanted to try Viper that goes upside down 7 times.  The line was non-existent unlike the other ride's two hour wait times due to training or some other nonsense on the one of two days during the week they were open.  I digress, anyways Rachel ended up going on Viper 4 or 5 times, we couldn't keep track.  Overall it was a great day and just felt good to be outside in the nice weather (can you tell winter gets long in Denver?).

  Can you say Super Woman?  They loved the capes, thanks so much Theresa & Rachel!

 

Sunday we went to church with Grandma & Grandpa and saw all the people we had grown up with who are still there. The girls also did a piano recital for Grandma & Grandpa as it was a great way to motivate them to practice! I let the girls wear their Easter dresses to show Grandma, don't they look so fancy with their scarves?

 

Monday we took lots of pictures:

 4 Generations

Missing just one great-grandchild from the Bartholomew family.

  

Then we sadly had to pack our bags, visit Grandpa at work, get one last In-N-Out fix and fly back to Denver.

Bye-bye so-Cal until Christmas!